The Clerk of the National Assembly, Sherlock Isaacs has rejected a complaint by the opposition PPP that three nominees of the governing coalition were not eligible for swearing in as technocratic ministers on Wednesday.
Minutes before Parliament was to convene on Wednesday, the PPP fired off a press release charging that Keith Scott, Sydney Allicock and Winston Felix were on the lists of candidates that were tendered by APNU+AFC to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to become MPs. The PPP argued that articles 103 (3) and 105 of the Constitution and laws relating to the appointment of technocratic ministers do not confer this status on the trio who had already been sworn in by President David Granger as ministers.
The PPP noted that Allicock had been listed on the APNU+AFC geographic list of candidates for Region Nine but did not win that seat. Felix and Scott meanwhile were listed on the APNU+AFC top-up list of candidates.
In his response yesterday, Isaacs said that a thorough examination of articles 103 (3) and 105 reveal that they do not adequately define a non-elected member. Referring to practice and the Representation of the People Act (Cap 1:03), Isaacs said that an elected member can be safely defined as a person whose name was extracted from the list of candidates and declared by GECOM to be a MP.
“It follows therefore, in my view, that a person who is on the list (presented by the contesting parties on Nomination Day) and whose name was not extracted and declared by the Guyana Elections Commission to be an elected member, can be appointed a non-elected Minister or a Parliamentary Secretary in accordance with Article 104 (3) of the Constitution”, Isaacs said.
He also noted that precedent had been set in the 9th and 10th Parliaments where Ralph Ramkarran who was on the PPP/C list of candidates in 2006 subsequently became a non-elected Speaker of the National Assembly and the same occurred with Raphael Trotman in 2011 when he was a non-elected Speaker while being on the Alliance For Change’s list of candidates.
Last evening, the PPP further disagreed with Isaacs’ opinion and signalled that judicial review would be sought.
The PPP said in a statement “The Clerk’s advice is clearly unsound, since as is known unextracted lists members are still recognized as elected members of the House and can be extracted and appointed as elected Members of Parliament” at any time during the five-year term of Parliament. The PPP said that it was clear that the drafters of the constitution intended to have different criteria for technocratic members.
